Thousands of baseball fans from MLB teams descended on the Choctaw and Esports stadiums in Arlington on Saturday for the opening day of the Capitol One All-Star Village, kicking off MLB All-Star week.
The four-day event, billed as a “Baseball Theme Park” by the MLB, is spread from Choctaw Stadium, the former home of the Texas Rangers, to the nearby Esports Stadium and covers all the ground in between. Baseball fans crowded onto the Choctaw field for batting and pitching cages and photo opportunities with players. They wandered through the stadium to buy baseball equipment or trading cards, check out displays celebrating MLB history, view baseball artifacts and take pictures with the World Series trophy.
While Rangers jerseys represented roughly 90% of the fans at All-Star Village, nearly all MLB teams were present, including some travelers and Texas transplants.
St. Louis Cardinals fans Aaron and Matt Mantia traveled from Missouri to visit family in the Dallas area, and decided to check out the All-Star Village after attending MLB All-Star festivities in St. Louis. Matt Mantia said the festivities in St. Louis paled compared with the Arlington event. The St. Louis All-Star Village was at a convention center, whereas Arlington hosted the event in a former baseball stadium.
The Mantias said getting autographs top their list of activities, especially from former Rangers and Chicago Cubs pitcher Jose Guzman, former softball player and UCLA associate head coach Lisa Fernandez and Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame third baseman Vinny Castilla.
Outside the stadium, Chevrolet had a pop-up shop, where fans could check out the latest Chevrolet models and compete to quickly unload baseball equipment from an SUV. There was also a Ferris wheel, a DJ, food trucks and raffles, where lucky fans could win tickets to the Home Run Derby or the MLB All-Star Game.
Ed Emanuel, who moved to Dallas-Fort Worth from New Jersey a few years ago, brought his kids TJ and Abi to the All-Star Village and ended up winning tickets to the All-Star game from a raffle.
Emanuel, a lifelong New York Yankees fan who grew up on Long Island, said he passed down his love of baseball and the Yankees to his kids. Since they moved to Texas, Emanuel said they try to go and watch the Yankees every time they play the Rangers.
TJ said he was excited for the All-Star Game on Tuesday and enjoyed the batting cages on Saturday. He also said he was looking forward to getting autographs from former players.
At Esports Stadium, just across a small lake from Choctaw, fans lined up for free autographs from former MLB players, to participate in a silent auction for baseball memorabilia or play MLB The Show 24, the most recent iteration in baseball simulation games. The setup for The Show took up much space in Esports Stadium, and included a series of virtual reality batting stations where fans could don a VR headset, pick up a bat and try to hit virtual home runs.
Rene Garcia, a Houston Astros fan who recently moved to Dallas-Fort Worth described himself as a gamer, but said the VR Home Run Derby was the first VR game he had ever played. Garcia said hitting a virtual home run is easier than hitting a real one, as he said you don’t feel the impact from the bat striking a ball.
Plus, with the weather in the mid-90s Saturday, Garcia said inside was a better place to be than outside.
“Especially right now where it’s sweltering outside, totally cool to still be here and not have to worry about being in the field or anything,” Garcia said. “It’s just a lot of a lot of fun.”
Garcia ended with a score of about 6,000. People at the top of the leaderboards had upwards of 12,000 points.
With the recent successes Texas teams have had in baseball, many fans said it felt right for the All-Star Game to be in the Lone Star State, with the Astros winning two World Series in the last seven years, the Rangers winning last year and the Texas A&M Aggies playing for the College World Series only last month.
“It feels great,” Garcia said. “Finally, Texas is stepping up to the plate and winning it all. So hopefully we just keep going.”
